Life: Take Two
by musicmuse20
Summary: I loved the self-insert fan fiction stories, but I always considered them just that, stories. I was a scientist, there was no way those stories could possibly happen, no matter how much I wished they could...or could they?
1. Prologue-My Story

**I decided to edit this. Note: Don't write stories at 1AM if you are sick...it usually means you have to go back and rewrite them...at least that's what happened with me. Anyways, hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think. It isn't that much different but there is more background in here. I will try to get chapter two redone as soon as possible.**

 _ **Edited: Aug16/15**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...duh...therefore I won't be putting this at the beginning of every chapter, however don't steal my oc or plot. Thanks. :P**_

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Prologue: My Story

 _I hope I didn't bore you too much with my life story._

 _-Elvis Presley_

My story was not spectacular, nothing interesting happened, there was no drama, it was peaceful and status quo. That was until _it_ happened. What was _it_? _It_ was the worst night of my life. A family vacation gone terribly wrong that started by journey down the path of death. Before I explain that lovely incident I guess I should give you the background information, it might be helpful.

My name was Rachel Elizabeth Dalton. I was 5'4", I had dark brown hair with auburn highlights, I had deep blue slightly green eyes. Right now I am physically 21, however this is the second time I have been 21, but I am getting ahead of myself again. When I had just turned 21, the first time, I had just graduated from university with a Degree in Science, specifically in Cellular Biology, Microbiology and Genetics, and had just received my acceptance letter to the medical genetics master's program that I had been dreaming off since I started my undergrad. My parents, John and Sherry, thought it would a great to celebrate my graduation and acceptance into graduate studies with a family vacation, unfortunately their idea of a family vacation meant a working vacation. My parents were doctors, John was a doctor of archeology and Sherry was a doctor of forensic and historical analysis. That meant the family vacation was going to be spent scouting new potential dig sites in Egypt and Lebanon. Not my idea of a vacation. My parents and I didn't see eye to eye on many things. Although they were proud of the fact that I had gotten accepted for graduate studies, their were horribly embarrassed that I had chosen to specialize in an area of science "so completely different" than their own fields. That alone was a huge source of tension in our family and it didn't ever get resolved. Needless to say the whole topic was brought up during our vacation. Arguments arose, yelling ensued and less than two days into our two week vacation I was in the airport in Cairo booking a flight home to Los Angeles. I didn't bother patching things up with my parents before leaving because I expected to see them in two weeks and I could work things out with them then. Little did I know that that would be the last time I saw John and Sherry.

About two weeks later when my parents failed to come home, there was an incident on the news about a bombing in Egypt that claimed the lives of many American tourists, including two well-known doctors, Drs. John and Sherry Dalton.

I couldn't believe it my parents gone just like that, no reconciliation, no more 'I love you', nothing. I will save you the whole sob story but suffice to say I would have shut down if it wasn't for my best friend Morgan. Morgan was a couple years older than me and was an intern that worked for my dad, but somehow we struct up a solid friendship. She introduced me to the wonders of manga, anime and fanfiction as well as introduced me to the wonderful world of Naruto. I introduced her to the world of genetics, music, art and dance. We were total opposites but for some reason we just worked.

Anyway skip forward about 10 years and Morgan has taken over my parents research completely, to the point where she was going back to Cairo to pick up where they left off. I was just finishing up medical school, not just any program but a PhD/MD combined program at John Hopkins University and was going to be going into an international internship in Japan. I was proud of my doctoral thesis it was on the relativity of mental and emotion states on measurable physical healing as seen in clinical trials. A strange and abstract study that bordered on psychology except for the fact that it was looking a measurable markers of healing and cell repair.

The week before _it_ happened I was starting to get worried because Morgan was due to check in with me. It was my one stipulation of letting Morgan take over my parents research. She had to check in with me every two weeks, whether it was a phone call, text message or email. She missed her last check in by three days. She was never, ever late. Fast forward a week and you could find me sitting in my apartment curled up on my couch reading the latest updates of my favourite Naruto fanfictions when all of a sudden an email notification popped up. It was from Morgan but when I looked at the date, it was from 5 days ago which made me wonder why I was just getting it now. I opened to find that it only contained two words. Run. Hide. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. I sat in silence for the next 5 minutes when suddenly my doorbell rang. I made my way to the door and saw that it was my lazy, good for nothing land lord. I groaned before opening the door. When I opened it my land lord didn't say a word, he slunk to the floor dead. My eyes followed him but snapped up when I heard a voice. "Are you Rachel Dalton?"I nodded silently as the stranger whipped out a gun and pointed it at me, "You shouldn't have put your nose where it didn't belong. We thought you got the message we sent through your parents but now we had to send it again through your friend and now finally we are giving it to you in person." The stranger sneered "It is your turn," he pulled his gun and cocked it, "to die!" He fired the gun and I felt a indescribable pain in my stomach. He fired again and this time I felt the pain in my heart. The doctor in me took over and was quickly analyzing my injuries. With the blood loss common from a stomach wound and shot to the heart, there was very little chance I was going to survive the man raised the gun towards my head, but paused, "Time to join your friend." The gun aimed at my head when off and everything faded away as my body sunk to the floor.

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Darkness, emptiness, loneliness, nothingness. There were no words to truly describe what death felt like. There was no life flashing before me, no light at the end of the tunnel. Nothing. Just nothing.

I don't know how long I spent in the empty void of nothingness, but gradually the darkness and silence around me began to fade.

* * *

"Girl, wake up!" A male voice demanded.

"Shh you will wake her up." A female voice admonished.

"But that is the whole point…" The first voice retorted. I tried to open my eyes, blinking them a couple of times to focus. I saw two toads sitting beside me staring at my face.

"Look what you have done, Fukasaku! You woke her up!" The female reprimanded.

"Oh shush Shima. She needed to wake up anyways to talk to the Great Toad Sage anyways." The male, Fukasaku, turned to face me and motioned for me to sit up and then follow him. Without either toad saying anything else I followed them until I was standing in front of a huge toad, who I could only assume to be this Great Toad Sage that Fukasaku had mentioned.

"Step forward." The Sage said. I quickly complied. "Do you know why you are here young one?" I shook my head unable to find my voice. The Sage smiled slightly as if to understand that I couldn't speak. "You died." My face must have had a look of shock on it for the Sage began to explain. "What I mean to say is that you died, before your time, in your own world, but the Shinigami had decided to give you a second chance here in this world." I could feel myself smiling when I heard that I was getting a second chance. The Sage continued, "Firstly, because your body died in your previous world, you cannot enter this world at the age at which you left the previous one, you must start again from the beginning. You must start as an infant." The Sage paused as if to allow me a second to digest the information before continuing again, "Secondly, although the information and knowledge from your past life will be helpful, you will have to unlock it in stages as your grow and develop. All that information is too much for such a young mind. That being said you will be allowed to retain deductive reasoning and memory skills and the like to help you acclimate faster to this world. Third, when you are of age, our contract holder will bring you back to this realm again for I have two contracts who have been looking for a summoner for quite some time and I foresee that you are the person they are looking for. Lastly, beware of men with masks; only a liar hides behind a mask and refuses to come out but the one who lays himself bare before you can be trusted for eternity."

With that the Sage nodded to Fukasaku who then did some kind of hand sign and I was left to the blackness once again. The next think I knew I was opening my eyes to bright light and some girl's voice saying, "Hello Keiko! I am your big sister Kushina!"


	2. The Terrible Twos & Threes

**Yay! I am back with the next chapter. Way better than what it was. I am going to be taking more time on each chapter with it so don't expect super fast updates...it doesn't help that University started up again and I have three grant proposals to write...fun fun...**

 **Thank you to everyone who has followed, favourited or reviewed!**

 **Anyways the only stuff that belongs to me is Keiko and any plot that is not canon. Enjoy!**

 **03/09/2015**

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Chapter One: The Terrible Twos and Threes

 _"Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."_

 _-C.S. Lewis_

Ever heard of that saying about the "terrible twos? Well my second year of life was terrible, just not in the normal definition of terrible. Terrible Thing One: Kushina and me were shipped out of Uzushiogakure and sent to Konohagakure. Terrible Thing Two: I had to take lessons from this old lady who clearly wasn't all that impressed with me. Did you ever realize that bad things happen in groups of three? It sucks...like...a lot. Terrible Thing Three: Kushina-nee-chan was leaving me to attend that stupid academy leaving me to fend for myself against the old lady.  
On the issue of Terrible Thing One; I was not happy...emphasis on the "not." I was not enjoying life in my new village, I didn't know anyone, granted because I was only two I didn't really know anyone from my last village but still the feeling of 'newness' was not pleasant. Oh and did I forget to mention there was no oka-chan or otou-san here, but I wasn't really as upset about as I should be, but in my defense I didn't really know them. Kushina looked after me in my first two years of life far more than Oka-san or Otou-san did, in fact if someone were to ask me if I remembered anything about my parents my answer would have to be no. I can't remember a single thing about them, not even their face. The only thing I remember about them is what they gave me for my second birthday not long before I was shipped off to Konoha. They gave me a set of sealing scrolls. Honestly, the present seemed kinda strange at the time because although I may be a genius and can already read and write basic text, it seemed a little premature to be handing me sealing scrolls.  
On the issue of Terrible Thing Two; I did not like Mito-baa-san and I was 99% sure that she did not like me, but every day she looked after me and eventually started tutoring me. Whenever Kushina was done at the academy she would join me in my lessons. At first she was way ahead of me in terms of knowledge, where that was just general knowledge or Fūinjutsu knowledge however by the time I was reaching my third birthday I was finally on par with my nee-chan's knowledge of Fūinjutsu. Key word in that sentence was knowledge, not skill. Mito-baa-san wouldn't let me practice any sealing, something about damaging my coils if I started using chakra too early. So instead she had me reading seal after seal after seal. I thought that by the time I could actually start practicing sealing I would have seen any type of seal possible. This notion was soon put out of my head because Mito-baa-san finally decided to explain why she was having me read so many different types of seals about 6 weeks before my 4th birthday.  
 _"Sealing is like language. Although the basic structure is the same from language to language, every culture, every nationality and even every person adds their own accent to the language making it their own but they cannot deviated from the basic foundation without weakening the validity of the language. The same can be said for sealing. Once you know the basics of sealing you will be able to analyze any seal you come across. That doesn't mean you will be able to read it in it's entirety right away but you will be able to identify it's purpose. Once you identify the purpose of a seal you can quickly decide how to counter it or reinforce it."_

After hearing Mito-baa-san's explanation I threw myself into my studies I wanted to be able to do what she described. Things were going all fine and dandy until my 4th birthday; which brings me to Terrible Thing Three. Remember how I was annoyed and completely disgruntled with the fact that Kushina left me behind to go to the academy every day? Well starting next week I was going to be attending the academy along with Kushina. I wasn't going to be in the same class as her obviously but still it was an improvement over being stuck with Mito-baa-chan, although I was starting to like Mito-baa-chan more and I think she was beginning to like me.

* * *

Anyways, Kushina decided to throw me a birthday party because apparently turning four was more special than turning three. I think she just wanted an excuse to party or she was celebrating the fact that I could attend the academy. Seeing as how I didn't know any kids my age, due to the fact that I mainly stayed with Mito-baa-chan all day, every day, Kushina decided to invite some people from the academy. She invited Minato, Inoichi Yamanaka, Shikaku Nara, Chōza Akimichi, as well as Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha and Hiashi and Hizashi Hyuga. The last four of the group were a couple years older than Kushina-nee but they apparently all socialized together after the academy was done for the day and the older ones were finished with missions. I didn't really care who she invited so long as I got presents. Selfish, right? Who cares? Kids are like that when they are young. The more people who came, the more presents I got, the more presents I got, the higher the chances of not getting something related to Fūinjutsu. Fūinjutsu is great an all but as a three almost four year old reading seals all the time is tedious and boring. I wanted some children's stories to read for once.

After some scramble planning on Kushina's part the day of my birthday party dawned bright and early and nee-chan woke me up with my favourite breakfast, blueberry pancakes with strawberry sauce and maple syrup. Delicious. After breakfast nee-chan presented me with my first present of the day, "Here Kei-chan! This one is from Mito-sama. She won't be here for the party but she said that she picked this out especially for you." Kushina held out a rather large box with a red bow on it. I took the box and began to open it. There were two individually wrapped presents inside. The first was a writing set complete with ink pots, brushes and paper in a mahogany chest. The second was a new outfit, it was a short dark purple sleaveless kimono that had a pale red rose pattern on the left side towards the bottom and an olive green belt/obi. It had the symbol of the Uzumaki clan on the back in the same olive green. There was also a mesh undershirt, black shorts, bandages, black fingerless gloves and a pair of black ninja sandals. Mito-baa-chan had thought of every thing but had obviously left me room to be creative with my new outfit. I absolutely loved it, maybe Mito-baa-chan wasn't as bad as I originally thought she was, based off of her present, she liked me.

After opening the presents Kushina decided that I was going to assist her getting our house ready for guests. Mostly that meant doing a little dusting and then watching nee-chan fail at baking a cake. It was about halfway through Kushina's third attempt at a chocolate cake that the first guests arrived, Mikoto and Fugaku Uchiha. My first reaction was that I absolutely loved Mikoto because in her hands was the most delicious looking chocolate cake I had ever seen, not that I had much to compare it too, but still. Mikoto took one look at me staring at the cake and laughed, "You must be Keiko-chan, the birthday girl." I simply smiled and nodded, "Let me guess, Kushina is in the kitchen, failing at baking?" I grimaced and nodded once again, "Well, my name is Mikoto and this is Fugaku. I am going to go and help Kushina-chan." To Fugaku she said, "You stay here and keep Keiko company. We are here early so you might have to find something to do to occupy the time." Fugaku nodded as Mikoto headed into the kitchen.

Once Mikoto was gone Fugaku turned to me and stared at me for a full minute before saying, "You are Keiko." I nodded. "How old are you?" I held up four fingers as I was kind of shy around strangers and people I had just met. "What would you like to do?" I grabbed his hand and led him into the living room of the house where I was trying to work on my calligraphy using the set I got this morning. I sat down on the floor and indicated that he should sit down beside me. As he sat down I began practicing. I wasn't that far in my practice when Fugaku interrupted me, "Why are you practicing calligraphy?" Instead of answering his question right away I got up and grabbed a scroll of poetry that Mito-baa-chan transcribed as well as one of her scrolls filled with basic types of seals. "I want my seals to be as pretty as Mito-baa-chan's, but she said it will take a lot of practice. She gave me the tools I needed in order to practice." I pointed to the chest containing my writing supplies, "It would be bad if I let her present go to waste, and it would be pointless if all I can do is read seals but not write seals." Fugaku look completely startled by my explanation and was silent. Suddenly a cough front the doorway interrupted the silence. It was the Hyuga brothers. It was easy to tell who they were because of their eyes. "Are you learning Fūinjutsu, Keiko?" one of them asked. I nodded, "But who are you?" Before either one of them could answer, the rests of my guests came piling into the living room, but I only recognized one. "Minato-nii!" I got up a jumped into his open arms.

Minato was amazing, he and Kushina didn't always get along but I thought he was awesome even if the only time I saw him was when I was allowed to go to the market for Mito-baa-chan. "Hey Kei-chan! Practicing calligraphy? Did Mito-sama finally let you move on writing, huh?" I nodded enthusiastically. "She did, finally. Reading and reading sealing scrolls all the time was boring. She gave me a writing set as well as this new outfit." I twirled "Isn't it pretty?" Minato chuckled, "Yes it is. It goes very well with your dark auburn hair and your pretty blue eyes. You are the loveliest lady. But shouldn't you greet the rest of your guests?" I nodded but paused, "I don't known anyone, I only know Fugaku." Minato grinned "Well then, let us remedy that." He pointed to each person and introduced them, "Inoichi Yamanaka, Shikaku Nara, Chōza Akimichi, Hiashi and Hizashi Hyuga." He turned and signaled to someone who I just noticed was standing just beyond the doorway, "And this is Jiraiya-sensei." The man he was pointing to had white hair and red lines on his face that made him look like he cried blood tears or something. At first I was hesitant to approach him, but then he crouched down to my level, smiled and held out a book, "Would you like to hear a story?" I grinned and ran into his arms, "YES!" Everyone looked both amused and dismayed about my acceptance of Jiraiya sensei, but to my thinking he was pretty awesome, he offered to read me a story. An actual story. I could not describe the extent of my excitement. Before he could get very far into the story Kushina called us for supper and so the birthday party progressed.

I got a lot of presents, most of them were ninja related: weapons pouch, kunai holder, kunai, shuriken, a first aid kit. Some presents were not related: a teddy bear, food vouchers to an Akimichi restarunt and to the ramen shop, and a set of pale red hair bands with embroidered purple roses; so that I could either keep my hair down but out of my face with the larger head band or braid it into one large braid with the smaller hair band.

Eventually it was time for everyone to leave, but before he left Jiraiya-ji came and crouched down in front of me again. He held out a scroll, "This is for you to open on your own tonight." I took it, "Thanks Jiraiya-ji." He got up and smiled, patted me on the head and said, "Thank you for letting me attend your party Kei-chan. I look forward to seeing you soon." With that he left and Kushina shooed me off to bed. As I was sitting in bed I opened the scroll that Jiraiya-ji gave me, it read: _Who you were and who you are now come together to make you who you are meant to be. Not all at once for great the risk but neither to slow and by chance shall miss. Sleep and you shall find what's amiss._ As I read the last word I fell into a deep sleep.

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 **Haha cliffy...kind of...you should be able to guess what will happen next...you should let me know what you think will happen next...you should review...please?  
**

 **Jiraiya: She likes me that adorable little Keiko-chan!**

 **musicmuse: Really what gives you that impression?**

 **Jiraiya: She called me Jiraiya-ji and not pervert!**

 **musicmuse:...she just doesn't know the real you yet...**

 **Jiraiya:... _sniff...sniff..._ you just had to ruin it didn't you...**


End file.
